1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catheter and, more particularly, to a catheter or a cannula for use in the therapy field, especially for surgery of the organ such as heart of a patient, which is so adapted as to be inserted into the body of the patient for supplying fluids such as blood, medicine or the like into the body or for draining fluids from the body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, a variety of catheters are being employed for various surgery including the heart surgery and for various examination. The catheter is so adapted as to supply blood or medicine or the like to the body of a patient or to drain fluids, such as blood, from the body by inserting the tip portion of its tube into a given location of the body through the blood vessel.
For or during examination or surgery, operators often demand to learn the temperature or pressure of fluids such as blood or medicine being supplied to the body of a patient or drained therefrom. Hitherto, for such purposes, there has been employed a pumping unit for supplying blood or medicinal fluids to the body of a patient under pressurized conditions or for sucking body fluids from the patient or a peripheral unit attached to the pumping unit and provided with a device for sensing the temperature and pressure of the fluids being supplied to or drained from the body of a patient. The temperature and pressure of the fluids are always being monitored through the devices by professional technicians or nurses and, in many occasions, the one monitoring the temperature and pressure verbally answers the operator to verbal demand from an operator to thereby let the operator or operators learn of the temperature and pressure of the fluids being supplied to the body or drained therefrom.
Such verbal communication, however, may cause operators inconvenience particularly during emergency surgery and it may impose unnecessary burdens upon the operators during surgery or examination. Further, it suffers from the disadvantage that the operator or operators may not be absorbed in operations or examination while monitoring the temperature and pressure of the fluid being supplied to or drained from the patient on a real-time basis.